Tuesday, July 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- A man sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of a Las Vegas cab driver is going to get a new penalty hearing because his defense lawyer was ineffective.
The state Supreme Court ruled Monday that Marvin L. Doleman should receive a second penalty hearing to decide his punishment for the fatal shooting of cab driver Kenneth Marcum during a robbery attempt in Las Vegas in January 1990.
The court said the defense failed, at the penalty hearing, to contact and present Doleman's mother and sister as witnesses to show mitigating circumstances that might have lessened the penalty to life.
His mother would have told the jury she was a prostitute and drug addict and her son was physically abused and often abandoned. She would have described the series of foster homes and reform schools that Doleman attended from the age of 4. The sister would have given similar testimony.
The court said a "reasonable investigation" by Doleman's trial counsel could have located the mother and sister.
"While evidence of Doleman's turbulent childhood was presented through his Boys Town records, we cannot underestimate the impact that live testimony from Doleman's family members could have had on the jury," said the court.
The court noted that co-defendant Frederick Paine, who also received the death penalty, pulled the trigger.
"Considering Doleman's role as an aider and abetter in the murders underlying this case, testimony from Doleman's family could have influenced the jury's death eligibility decision."
The court also said that officials at Boys Town could have testified to the good character of Doleman, if they had been called. But the defense lawyer said he couldn't find anyone who could testify. The failure to introduce this evidence, said the court, prejudiced Doleman.
Paine and Doleman were also involved in the robbery-shooting of another cab driver in Las Vegas but the victim recovered.
In other cases, the court:
* Upheld the death penalty for Anthony Doyle, found guilty of the murder of 20-year-old Ebony Mason, whose body was found in a remote area of Clark County in January 1994. The court did overturn Doyle's sexual assault conviction and the life term he received for that. Doyle was one of three men arrested after the killing. There was testimony the men, after having sex with the woman, were afraid she would accuse them of rape. Mason was choked and beaten and when she failed to die, a brick was dropped on her face.
* Affirmed the death penalty for William L. Witter, convicted of the stabbing of James Cox in the parking lot of the Luxor in November 1993. Witter had initially accosted Cox's wife, Kathryn, who was in her stalled car, stabbed her and tried to rape her. When James Cox arrived on the scene, Witter stabbed him.
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